


Fine, We're Damaged

by imnotchason



Category: Heathers (1988), Heathers: The Musical - Murphy & O'Keefe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fucked Up, Jd x therapy am i right, Multi, angsty but cute, sometimes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-04-16 17:18:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14169738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imnotchason/pseuds/imnotchason
Summary: "You need help.""Who's gonna help me?"Maybe Veronica could have convinced JD off that field.





	1. Chapter 1

"JD, please." As he turned his back to her Veronica couldn't tell if she was sobbing or shouting. But something within her was forcing her to carry on. Adrenaline, maybe? She knew that the longer she stayed with him the more likely it was that she was going to be collateral damage of his suicide. If that doesn't get the fight or flight response going what would, right? Maybe it was the knowledge that if she didn't talk him down he and maybe everyone in that school was going to die. And how was she ever going to live with that? 

Or maybe it was something altogether more dangerous and indefinitely more frightening.

Maybe it was because she loved him. Him. JD. This broken, unpredictable, teetering on insane, beautiful boy who was standing in the middle of the football field of his eleventh high school clutching a trigger bomb to his chest as though he was a child holding onto his favourite stuffed animal. She didn't want to love him. Wished she'd never laid eyes on him, in fact. But she had. And now she had to face the consequences of what that entailed.

Her legs were giving way beneath her now, and Veronica knew it was coming and knew that if she didn't do something at that very moment it would be something she regretted for the rest of her life.

Now or never.

Somewhere within her, she found enough strength to push herself off the wall she was leaning on and her brain made her legs stop shaking and made them move towards him. It started as a walk, but that wasn't enough, and she knew that. 

The image of Heather in the bathroom with an empty bottle of pills in her hand flashed in front of her eyes. Then Martha floating in the river under that bridge. Ram and Kurt sprawled on the grass in the cemetery. Heather's blue stained tongue and pale body.

Too many people had already died - or tried to die - and that's what sent her into a sprint towards her whatever-he-was now. Boyfriend? Ex-boyfriend? Partner in crime? Before she knew it she was with him, and her arms were locked around his waist. She felt him wince slightly, and then she realised that her hands were wet and that she was gripping exactly where she had shot him. Well, at least maybe she was stopping the bloodflow somewhat.

"Veronica, what are you doing?" He sounded panicked. Scared, even.

"You can't kill yourself." Her voice was so low that he might not have even heard her.

"Everyone would be better off if I was dead."

 _I wouldn't._ That's what Veronica wanted to say. What she nearly said. Her face was pressed tightly into the back of his jacket, and he smelled just like he always did and for a second she forgot exactly where she was and exactly what he was. For a second it was like they were a couple, like they  **could** be a couple. That's what she wanted, after all. If she let herself think about it enough, that was what she wanted. Him.

He's a psychopath, Veronica, pull yourself together. 

"Too many people have died, JD. Don't add to that number. You need help."

"Stand back, Veronica. Please. Go back inside."

"No. I won't watch you kill yourself." She felt him chuckle, and there was no mirth in it.

"Then don't look." That's when she let herself cry. Truly cry. And as soon as she started sobbing into the fabric of his trenchcoat everything finally washed over her and she was suddenly crying for everyone and everything that had happened over the past year. 

"Oh, god." JD's response was unexpected but that's when she knew she'd won. "Don't cry, please."

"You need help."

"Who's gonna help me?"

"You need help." 

"Veronica..."

"I won't move. You kill yourself? I'm coming with you." There was a pause that could have lasted a second or could have lasted ten minutes before JD spoke again.

"Stand back."

"Did you not hear me -?"

"'Ronica. I need to put it down." She leaned back, not removing her arms from around him.

"Or you'll just detonate it as soon as I let go." JD shifted slightly as though he was trying to look at her.

"You're not far enough away. It'd still take you out. And what makes you think I have any intention of that?" Veronica didn't have time to think it over. She dropped her arms from around him, taking half a step back. For a horrific second she watched JD stall, and then he slowly lowered himself to his knees and placed the bomb on the ground.

And as soon as he'd done that he was up again and he was saying something to her but she couldn't hear him over her tears and the wind that she hadn't even noticed before. Her legs finally gave up on her and buckled, and then his arm was around her waist and he was half carrying half dragging her across the field with his other arm pressing his stomach as hard as he was able to.

They made it to the steps of the school before JD collapsed. He was conscious, but he was pale and his breathing was shallow. He was half on top of her, arm still around her waist and as Veronica tried to wriggle out of his grasp, he only gripped on tighter.

"Don't leave me."


	2. Chapter 2

She didn't want to. She didn't want to leave him. And something inside her was scared that she never would want to leave him. But -

"I've got to. There's a phone just outside school, remember, I gotta get to it."

"You're calling the cops?" His voice was shaking and Veronica wished she could say it was just because he was scared, but the fact that his blood was now staining her shirt was telling her otherwise.

"No, of course not I'm... I'm calling the ambulance."

"Don't lie."

"I'm not, I swear. You need to go to the hospital." A laugh fell from JD's lips and it sent a chill down Veronica's spine how hollow it sounded.

"I can't afford a hospital."

"Well, I... I'll pay, just please -" She pushed his shoulder as hard as she could, which, considering that she still felt as though she could pass out at any minute, wasn't that hard. But still, he groaned and slumped onto the steps and for a second, Veronica was very wary about leaving him. For all she knew, he could have bled out by the time she got back. "Keep pressure on that, okay?"

"Didn't realise you were a doctor."

His voice faded into the background because she was already running.

*

Veronica was quite unsure as to how she'd managed to get out of there. How she'd managed to get out safely, anyway. When the ambulance had arrived at the school, Veronica had barely made it back to JD - she hadn't realised that the recoil of a gun could do so much damage to her leg - and by the time she got to him he had passed out.

The questions that the paramedics in the ambulance asked her were avoidable enough - JD was suicidal, he carried a gun everywhere he went but then decided that he wanted to make a statement in his death the way the other suicides did and eventually why he decided on the bomb, he got shot in the fight between the two of them when she tried to stop him from killing himself. A woman that was nice enough was patching up her leg, but as Veronica swayed side to side as the ambulance sped over bumps in the road, she found her eyes remained locked on the boy on the stretcher that was crammed into the other side of the van. He was attached to one of those machines that she'd seen in General Hospital and it didn't look like he was breathing - but she must have asked that question lots of times because the woman that answered sounded more and more exasperated with every answer.

"Yes, dear, he's still alive, now could you sit still so I can strap you up?"

By the time they actually reached the hospital and they took JD down to surgery, Veronica half expected herself to scream and cry and demand to go with him. But she didn't. She didn't say anything, just let herself be led to a hospital room of her own and let the nurse tell her that she needed to rest while she called her parents. It was quite disappointing, if she were honest with herself, how little resistance she put up.

Would the ringing in her ears ever stop?

She shook her head (which actually did nothing to clear her thoughts) and kicked her heels together. It was too quiet in her room, she wasn't sure she'd ever experienced quiet like it. She watched the nurses zip past her room in a blur of white for a while before starting as she saw a swish of yellow.

A pair of brown eyes peered into the window of her hospital room before it opened and Heather entered.

"Oh, my God, are you alright?" Well, she shouldn't be asking me that. She should be asking JD that.

"Yeah. I need a favour." Veronica felt bad for being so direct, especially with potentially the only true friend she had left. Heather looked taken aback for a split second, but she nodded and took a seat in the chair next to the bed.

Heather was the first person she had thought to call after the ambulance. Well, she called the school and asked for 'Heather', shouting at Duke when she picked up the phone and demanding the cheerleader. And she was pretty sure she hadn't made any sense at all, but Heather had understood and responded nonetheless. 

Now here she was, and Veronica already felt terrible for what she was about to ask.

"I need - would I be able to borrow some money?" Heather frowned in apparent confusion.

"Well... yeah, of course you can. What for?"

"The hospital fees."

"I thought you had health insurance."

"I do... but JD doesn't, and I told him I would pay but I can't pay unless I dip into my college fund and if you can't lend me money then I will do that but if you can -"

"Veronica, I'm not going to lend you money." She sighed, hanging her head and nodding.

"That's okay, I just -"

"No, no, I mean, I'll get you the money. I'll get my dad to pay for his treatment, but you don't have to pay it back. It's not yours to pay back." Veronica looked up at her friend, half smiling and reaching for her hand.

"But JD can't pay it back, and his father definitely won't -"

"No, no-one is going to pay it back. We'll take care of it." She stood up affirmatively, preparing to turn out of the door. "I'll call my father right now."

"Heather, I can't ask you to do that."

"I want to. I -" She grimaced, tugging on the end of her skirt and looking back over her shoulder at Veronica. "- for Kurt. And Heather. I can't save them now. But maybe we can save him."

And then she left the room and Veronica watched her make a beeline for the telephone and thought -  _yeah._

_Maybe they could._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: an update?!?!?!?! doesn't seem like me at all, does it. am i feeling well?
> 
> regardless, please enjoy this rare occasion while it lasts!!!<3

**Author's Note:**

> AN: delving into the world of heathers oh my.
> 
> i will most likely write more chapters to this, i have a vague idea of the direction i wanna go in, but who knows how often i'll update. i'll try to be somewhat consistent though!
> 
> this is just a tester/prologue kinda chapter but i hope you enjoy regardless!!


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